Re: Leguminosae and folding leaves...
Barry Garcia wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> My seedling Acacia baileyana is doing well and it does something i
> never noticed on these plants before. At night the one true leaf it has
> right now folds up, just like the much quicker mimosas do when tapped.
> Since it is indoors, when it gets really dark i turn on the lights and
> the leaf slowly unfolds. I was wondering if this is a trait common to
> all the Leguminosae, or at least the tree and shrub types?
Hi Barry
Certainly common, if not universal in the woody part of the Family.
>
> Also:
>
> I have a seedling Moringa oleifera (Horseradish Tree, Drumstick Tree,
> Malunggay). It's just been a week since the seedling became free from
> the seed itself, and is already three inches high. Most is the stem but
> the leaves are coming along. The cotyledons havent even unfurled yet
> (at least that's what I assume they are. I dont know if the Moringacea
> have seed leaves or just show the true leaves first).
Germinating seeds proceed in one of two ways. They may either raise the
cotyledons above ground and use them as their first leaves (Epigeal
Germination) or alternatively the cotyledons may stay inside the
seedcoat and just feed their stored nutriment into the elongating shoot
(Hypogeal germination). I am not familiar with Moringa and its
germination, but it is obviously from your description hypogeal and you
won't see the cotyledons at all.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
